We couldn’t be more excited about our 2013 race team. Making up the State Water Heaters sponsored Stewart-Haas team is our driver Ryan Newman and team owner Tony Stewart. You can always count on these two to bring power, speed and action to the track. Want to know these fan favorites a little better? Read on.
Ryan Newman
Ryan Newman drives the State Water Heaters sponsored No. 39 Chevrolet SS. He’s obviously skilled in handling No. 39 at mind-blowing speeds (hello Brickyard 400), but did you know he has a degree in Vehicle Structure Engineering from Purdue University? This knowledge of car physics—including friction, aerodynamics and downforce—teamed with his “heavy” right foot make him a fierce competitor and likely the brainiac of the track. Simply put, he knows his stuff.
His lifelong affinity for all things racing makes his career choice seem destined from the start. In fact, Newman, who is now in his 12th full season of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, first dreamt of becoming a bona fide racer at the age of 4, when he slid behind the wheel of his first quarter midget racecar.
Since joining the circuit in 2000, Newman has racked up 17 wins, including his history-making victory at the 2008 Daytona 500 and his most recent Brickyard 400 win.
Newman is also an avid outdoorsman, enjoying fishing and farming on his time off. He also plays an active role in the Ryan Newman Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization he founded with his wife Krissie. The organization’s three-fold mission is to educate and encourage people to spay or neuter their pets and to adopt dogs and cats from animal shelters; to educate children and adults about the importance of conservation so the beauty of the great outdoors can be appreciated by future generations; and to provide college scholarship funding through the Rich Vogler Memorial Scholarship Foundation, from which Newman himself was a recipient, to students interested in auto racing careers.
Tony Stewart
The co-owner of the #39 Quicken Loans/State Water Heaters car and driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet is Tony Stewart, a racing champion in many different racing series and 48-time NASCAR Sprint Cup race winner. Currently in his 15th full season as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and his fifth as an owner, Stewart is a household name in the sport with three NASCAR Sprint Cup titles under his belt. He won his first in 2002, his second in 2005 and his most recent win came in 2011, when he beat out Carl Edwards in a tiebreaker at the Ford EcoBoost 400.
He is the first and only driver to have won championships in stock cars, Indy cars and open-wheel Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown cars. And his three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships make him one of a select few drivers who have three or more Cup titles.
An ardent philanthropist and all around good guy, Stewart started a charitable foundation in 2003 that raises funds for chronically ill and disabled children, animals that are endangered or at-risk, and drivers injured while motor racing. To date, the philanthropy has raised more than $5 million for over 150 charitable initiatives. He was named “Most Caring Athlete” by USA Weekend in 2004, and in that same year he was tabbed by The Sporting News as “NASCAR’s ‘Good Guy’” and received the NASCAR USG Person of the Year award.
